What Keeps Doctors Happy and Productive

Everybody in medicine is talking about burnout. We all have our favorite hypotheses about what could be to blame: tight schedules, too much computer time, tough administrators, know-it-all politicians, RVU’s (Relative Value Units), difficult patients.  Doctors seek to understand causes so that we can find cures. It’s the diagnose-and-treat paradigm.

This essay is not a referenced journal article.  I’m here to tell you what I have seen keep doctors happy and productive in my 14 years as a hospitalist - including me.

By: Sansrita Nepal, M.D., Marisa Echaniz, M.D. and Joseph Walker Keach, M.D. 

By: Sansrita Nepal, M.D., Marisa Echaniz, M.D. and Joseph Walker Keach, M.D. 

I am a hospitalist at a safety-net hospital. Through my work I have come to understand how our daily decisions – filtered through our own biases – influence how healthcare is implemented, and I had a personal teacher in my first year as an attending. Soon after starting my job, I met Mr. K.

As a practicing hospitalist in a safety net hospital, I am on the front lines battling the opioid epidemic. In the past five years, I have seen an increase in the number of hospitalized patients with heroin-related medical complications, including abscesses, cellulitis, infective endocarditis and overdose events.